


Bespelled

by esteefee



Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Alternate Universe - Magic, First Kiss, Fluff, M/M, Mages
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-03
Updated: 2019-07-03
Packaged: 2020-06-03 05:03:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,126
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19456921
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/esteefee/pseuds/esteefee
Summary: A chance meeting in the mage-torn woods leads to romance for a cranky technomancer and a hotshot mage knight.





	Bespelled

**Author's Note:**

> Beta by em-kellesvig
> 
> For my "Walk in the Woods" [Just Write!](https://discord.gg/PcF4aB9) Fluff Bingo square.

Rodney walked in the forest, gathering _Sequoia metallica_ , the pieces of metal wood he'd found vital for his technomancy, when he noticed the trees had started to take on a decidedly shattered appearance. Curiosity—not the healthiest of instincts—had him following the trail of the wreckage to the man standing at the center of it all, Mage Knight Sheppard, who had just lifted his hands once again toward the untouched straw targets.

"Hey, watch where you point those things!" Rodney said.

Sheppard spun and said, "Oh, crap, it's you."

Rodney put his hands akimbo. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Just...I..." Sheppard waved toward the circle of shattered tree stumps and slumped. 

Rodney raised an eyebrow. "That I'm too good a mage to possibly miss the fact you have wretched aim?"

"Yeah, that." 

Rodney stepped forward, marveling at the decimation. Sheppard's power had always impressed him. Well, that, and the form he cut in his knight's gear, not that Rodney would mention it. 

"However are you managing to do so well from atop a Pegasus if you can't even aim standing still?"

Sheppard shrugged. "It's different in battle. My blood gets up. You know how it is."

"Hardly. I'm happy to stage the play and work my magics safely behind the battlements."

Smirking, Sheppard moved closer. "Like you did last week when you ran out behind the bowmen with those marvelous spellcast-arrows?" Sheppard's tone was so admiring, Rodney got a fierce shiver.

"You're no slouch yourself, Sir Knight."

Sheppard raised a sardonic eyebrow and gestured toward the nearest broken tree limb.

"All right, let me see your stance," Rodney said, waving. "Maybe I can help."

There was a faint tinge of pink to Sheppard's cheeks as he took his casting stance, his right arm cranked back, his left hand forward for balance, and his broad thighs spread, with his left foot forward and his right foot back.

"Hmmm, your form isn't bad," Rodney said, admiring it rather too much. "Let me make a few adjustments." Rodney stepped directly behind him and nudged Sheppard's legs slightly apart. "You'll have slightly better balance this way."

"Uh-huh, smart," Sheppard said, leaning back into Rodney a little. 

"And your casting hand should start closer to your ear." Rodney took Sheppard's wrist delicately between his fingers and moved it closer to his head. Now the two of them were almost chest to back. Rodney took a small breath and then stepped away, clearing his throat. 

"Now cast but without spelling. I just want to see your follow-through."

"All right," Sheppard said, his voice hoarse. He went into his windup and then released, doing it all in slow motion once, and then again faster.

"Your form is good," Rodney said grudgingly. Very good. And Sheppard recovered quickly, as well. "Maybe the setting is the problem. Have you ever thought on the difference? What are you thinking in battle, beyond defeating the enemy? When you cast in earnest, I mean." Rodney guided Sheppard to a downed log, prodigious in width—he had a knight's power, for sure—and sat him down.

"I suppose...I'm thinking about strategy. About defeating the enemy."

Rodney waved his hands. "Too simplistic. Dig deeper. You're on the battlefield, leading the charge. What are you primary thoughts as you set for your first cast?"

Sheppard turned toward him, irritation in his look. "I check for clearance, of course: the location of all my people, who is where..."

"Yes, and...?"

"Well, of course, I worry about their safety in battle, first thing, so my primary concern is to protect them all." Sheppard rubbed the back of his neck. "The truth is, I don't so much cast to kill as cast to protect."

"And there you have it," Rodney said, vindicated. "When you stand in the practice circle, your thoughts are quite different. The strawmen are the enemy, but what have the strawmen done to you? Nothing, I say. You aren't protecting anyone against their evil ways."

Sheppard chuckled and looked out at the blameless targets. "You have a point; Jinto worked really hard creating them. I was just thinking how sad he would be to have them destroyed."

"And so, you see?" Rodney beamed. Sheppard smiled back, his strangely-colored eyes gleaming in the dappled forest light.

"You are an amazing man, Rodney Tybalt McKay."

Rodney coughed a little, completely caught out. "I'm..."

Sheppard jumped up and strode to the center of the circle. "I have to try it."

"All right. Remember what I told you."

Sheppard flashed him a grin. "Of course. And now I have someone to protect from the evil strawman."

"You do? Oh! You mean—" Rodney felt himself flush. 

"Someone I admire," Sheppard said, flushing himself, and he turned away. His cast went straight and true, form perfect, and the strawman exploded in fire and ash. 

"Well. Whatever motivation works," Rodney said, smiling when Sheppard turned toward him, brilliant with success.

"It did! Rodney, you don't know how grateful I am. You are amazing. Thank you." With a flip of his fingers, Sheppard made a small cast, and a warm pressure briefly met Rodney's cheek.

"You did not just—did you just spell-kiss me?" Rodney said, outraged. "I'll have you know I invented that spell!"

Sheppard grinned and flipped him another kiss, this one a little hotter, so sizzled as it met Rodney's lips.

"Mmmph!" Rodney charged across the distance between them, spelling three kisses in rapid succession and hurling them at Sheppard's grinning mug. Sheppard laughed and pretended to dodge, but somehow all three still met their target, leaving bright red marks on his cheeks and mouth.

"Take that," Rodney said, pausing in front of him. 

Sheppard licked his lips leaned in. "Yes, please," he murmured against Rodney's mouth, and then his velvety tongue parted Rodney's lips, and Rodney fell under a different kind of spell. It was purely outrageous that a man of Rodney's skills and talents should be enchanted by such a simple lure, but he was undeniably entranced by Sheppard's soft, lush kisses and gentle hums of contentment.

"It isn't fair, you know," Rodney said after some time, after Sheppard had laid him down onto the springy forest floor and kissed him into a state of besotted bliss. "The Crown has a vital use for my essential skills, and you've utterly smitten me. How am I supposed to cast spells now?"

"Well," Sheppard stopped contemplating Rodney's mouth or nose or whatever he was presently doing and properly focused his attention on Rodney's very important problem. "I suppose I could always help you with your form. I had a very good teacher."

Rodney managed to summon enough of his brain to cast a goosing spell in retaliation. 

............................  
June 30, 2019  
San Francisco, CA


End file.
